Romford Model Railway Society - Annual model railway exhibition

Once again we set up in the corridor. We had a fantastic running session belting up and down and once again a Hercules proved its worth. In the picture, the train is just going on to the steel adapter piece which converts between 16mm rail and 21mm rail. We use this as we had a spare set of pionts in 21mm rail. To help save my bandwidth I am now posting videos on Youtube.com. Includes one of the train in the corridor and a demostration of how free running our coaches are. We were sorry to hear that Aprils O gauge meet will not be happening. Big thanks to all those donations for the local hospice.

Other bits at the show.

I don't know why but for me the show just clicked. There were loads of new layouts and plenty of things moving. Even my boy Clark disn't seem to get bored. Not bad for a three year old.

The tram layout above and below, Barton Sands, really caught my eye. It had a real sense of fun and enjoyment about it. I suppose it also rekindled memories of holidays in Blackpool.

All the fun of the fair. Clark loved this model from Chelsmford. Once again plenty of stuff moving.

It was also nice to see a huge N gauge layout running full length trains including a full length Eurostar which was several feet long.

Last Run of the Year at Canvey

Whilst at the above railway exhibition I was invited to run on a members day at Canvey Island Club track. Luckily we had excellent weather and had a really good run. There were also two lovely steam engines on the raised track, one being an excellent 3.5" gauge quarry hunslet.

Unfortunately Clark was ill with a bad cold so he is missing from the pictures. Still we had two Jaspers, the engine and my little boy.

We were also joined by a few good friends including Tony who brought along his Portugese Hercules and green and cream coaches. We also saw his son Andew's Charleton but apparently it works better with charged batteries (sorry couldn't help it).

Up and Coming Events

We are already looking towards 2007. I have just sent off the form for Merstham show (19th-20th May). We had an amazing response last year so this year we are going to spend a bit of time and effort to produce an even better stand.

Given the huge cost of the big trade shows (most are over £500+ for 3m x 3m stand) we are looking towards the garden railway scene rather than the model engineering side. If you know of a show you think we should attend or would like us to attend please let us know. We are able to combine a show of our products with a working line of up to 50m.

We are also currently working on a presentation on our railway, business and 5" gauge railways. If you would like us to come and talk at your club and you are not a million miles away drop me a line. We now have a video projector so we should be able to offer a mix of video and pictures. I have already had a couple of provisional bookings at Canvey and Chelmsford. All being well we should have a package sorted by early January.

NEW PRODUCTS AND CHANGES FOR 2007

Now I have managed to shake off that nasty habit of a day job I am in a better position to develop new products.

Highlights of the new year will be

• Two new locomotives based on actual prototypes

• New bottom entry locomotive

• More ready to run and spec built items

• More stable riding coaches*

Who knows, if the product range stops moving we might even produce a printed catalogue.

*this project is currently under trial. Born out of the frustration of children derailing the kiddy coach by leaning and not sitting still (actually applies to a few adults aswell). I would currently rate a 90% improvement so far. Needs more testing in the real world.

All Change for www.rideonrailways.co.uk

Another big sarcastic thanks to Easyspace. Once again I bring up their name because despite paying them to renew our domain name (as mentioned last month), they failed to actually carry out the renewal. This is the reason our website went down for 2-3 days.

A company that hosts websites that doesn't pay for domain name renewals is beyond belief. I would call it gross incompetence of a scale you would not believe, others would say they are a shower of ******. Both are factually correct.

Anyway the up shot of this is that I will not give Easyspace one more penny of our money and would recommend others to aviod them. I will be moving back to my old domain host Ukservers who previously looked after the name with the minimum of problems.

While the switch takes place there may be times when email and the website go off line. Please bare with us while I go through the motions of transfering the site.

Email

The spammers are playing havoc with the email I get around 150 emails a day with 140 of them getting quarantined. Occasionally one or two legitimate emails get caught up and the only way to find them is to trawl through the list reviewing all the mail.

One of the reasons why I get so much is that spammers now frequently use software to scan the internet for email addresses. Our website is littered with the email icon and the email address which has obviously contributed to the spam.

For this reason I will be switching off the catch all address and only be using specific addresses.

I am slowly removing all the email buttons and links to replace them with a link to the contact us page. The reason the address is in a graphics file is to stop some automatic software from reading it.

If in any doubt please use the phone - 01708 708768. I don't mind evening calls up to 9pm if that helps.

CLEARENCE SALE

We will be stock taking soon as we have finally invested in a piece of inventory software. In the meantime we are going to have a bit of a clear out. The above speed signs were painted for Harrogate several years ago. They got chipped and knocked and generally tatty. The plain metal ones are just a plain pest to store and with very little take up we need the space.

Pre Christmas offer

Signs on Poles (as in pictures above) - Painted or none painted - £4 each. Add £1.50 for an arrow

Signal arms - - £3.50 each

Speed Signs (no pole)- £3.50 - 5pmh, 10mph, or 15mph

Minimum order of 2. Postage at Post Office prevailing rate.

Check back regularly as we may possibly be selling some of our coaches to make way for the new ones early next year.

FINALLY

A big thanks to all those who sent my dad an email wishing him well. While he is not totally over it he is up and running and now fair game to get him back up and working. The coach shop is going again with at least two coach bodies finished and another two on there way. Sorry for the delays on these but I didn't want to take his carrot away.